|What Happened to Niall| Niall Centric

Chapter 12 -»Liam Payne«-

It was still cold when they all woke up. They could see their breath in the air and barely feel their fingers as they stretched. They all tried to shake the sleep from their bodies as Louis rushed them to move along.

It was silent for a solid 37 minutes as they all shuffled through the thick woods. They had left their town behind them, their homes. A deep part of all them knew they would never go back. It surprised them all, how much it hurt to keep walking. Every step took them farther away from the false safety of their childhood homes. Each crunch of a twig reminded them that they were on their way to something big, something they didn't even understand.

The atmosphere around them all had changed drastically since last night. They were no longer bouncing on their feet, ready to march themselves into what felt like their deaths. They were now reminiscing on the past, because they felt it, everything was about to change.

"I grew up in that town and all I'll ever seen of it was however far my window would let me." Liam finally spoke. He was behind everyone, watching the ground as he did. "That's crazy, right? I've lived here for so long and I've only seen a forest on tv." Harry and Zayn gave him a small smile, stopping to look around them as they did. "Now we're in one." Liam spoke in a hush, directing that to Harry and Zayn alone. He turned to Louis and clapped a hand on his shoulder. Louis let out a breath and finally looked into Liam's eyes. "You helped us do that, thank you." He shook Louis' shoulder as if to shake the words into him.

Louis shrugged but looked over to where Harry and Zayn were taking in their surroundings as if finally awoken from their stupor. "It wasn't me, you guys were the ones who stepped out the front door." A small smile slowly curled across his face as he patted Liam on his back. "You guys are the brave ones." He turned away from the lot of them, starting to make his way forward again.

"We can do this, can't we?" Harry asked, following behind Louis as he did. "We might actually be able to do this, right?" Zayn and Liam followed, their moods starting to brighten as they hung on Louis' every word. It was silent as they all thought about it, about the possibility that they could all make it out of this alive.

"We've made it this far, I reckon we have a chance." Louis finally answered.

They all realized how dangerous this whole thing was, but with each other they felt like they could do it. Louis was right, most people didn't even make it out of their house. And even the smallest thing, like being in the woods made them feel stronger. They weren't supposed to be in the woods, but they were.

They all started to laugh, holding each other up as they continued up the hill, holding their sides. They don't know who started it but it felt good to just laugh. This was a big fuck you to the government, and it felt amazing.

The silence was now filled with conversation as they tried to pass the time. After about another 2 hours of walking with few breaks in between, the trees around them started to thin.

Liam smiled when he could see buildings between the small gaps. His feet ached and all he wanted was a place to rest but he continued on. He was so close to just sitting on the ground and calling it a day when they finally stepped out of the forest.

Louis pulled the paper from his pocket and stared at it for a few minutes. When he finally put it down to find the closest street sign, he turned to everyone with a smirk. "Looks like we're out of the woods now." Liam shook his head at the joke but nonetheless joined in on the smiles exchanged.